Any help would be greatly appreciated, i have missed 5 deer this year from my stand all have been high over the back, I tell myself to aim lower but i still miss. i have my sights sighted in from an elevated position and when im sighting the bow in from an elevated position i hit dead on vitals everytime. Is it just the rush of the deer in front of me thats making me miss? Very discouraged bow hunter
There are any number of things it can cause you to shoot high, assuming your not dealing with very skittish deer, assuming your bow is sighted in properly we can narrow it down to a form issue, because your missing to a consistent location....as apposed to a random miss caused by panicking One sure thing that will cause high miss is lifting you head up in anticipation of the shot....Dropping you bow arm before a complete follow though can cause it also. Also you may not be bending enough at the waist...That could change you anchor point and cause a high miss..... I am sure I forgot a few and guys here can toss a few other ideas out also....
I agree with Trial153 in that you are probably not bending your waist which will cause you to drop your bow arm. The closer the animal the more drastic the arm drops the higher you will shoot. Your arms should always form a tee.
I've had this problem once....If you are using a range finder. Is the deer walking toward you or a way from you? Play it out in your mind and the answer will surprise you. If the deer is walking toward you then it moved closer than you are compensating for. If the deer is still each time you take a shot. Then are you ranging the animal and using the proper pin you sighted for. Think hard the answer my surprise you...
Bend at the waist young man. When you draw and aim out of a treestand, we have a tendency to just drop the bow arm to the animal, settle in and let it fly. When you do this, you're changing your anchor point. Draw the bow level and get into your anchor. Then, bend at the waist while maintaining this anchor and feel as best you can. It's tough, if not impossible to keep your form and anchor perfect. But doing it the best you can will ensure you of a better, more accurate shot. I also sight my bow in for hunting season a little differently. I setup my 20 yard pin to shoot a couple inches low. When you're 20ft up a tree, 20 yards is a pretty hard angle, even when bending at the waist. So I try to help myself out a little. Beyond 20 yards, the angle isn't as much of an issue, so I leave those pins alone.
Check your grip would be my suggestion. You could be pushing low on your grip causing the arrow to go high.
All of the other guys are correct when the say to bend at the hips and stay consistent with you anchor point. That's why a lot of guys miss high. Since you are dead on when practicing from an elevated position you already have the right form and fundamentals, you need to determine what you forget to do in the moment than you do when you practice. For me its my follow through. The deer is below me so naturally I want to raise by bow out of the way to see the arrow hit. This makes me miss high every time. It still happens even though when I practice I hold my follow through for a second or two after my arrow hits.
achor point in the same place everytime.....and have a good rangefinder with angle intellegence.....i usually range all my shooting lanes beforehand when I'm bored....i never missed a deer before...
When I started bowhunting when I was 15, I had a very bad tendancy to either miss a deer high or to hit them in the spine. My problem was that I was so caught up in the heat of the moment that when I would begin to bring my pin down onto the deer, I would trip my release trigger as soon as I saw my pin hit deer hide. Always high. Essentially a form of target panic. I had to finally just discipline myself to wait until my pin hit the spot I was aiming for. It took some time, and more importantly, more deer encounters for me to remedy this. Now I havent missed a deer or hit them high in a number of years.
deer duck, plain and simple, watch how far this doe ducks at 34 yards and not alerted: its at the 6:02 mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-KFOlpB75s&list=UUX8qOCUInXC-9n2OGhsPODg&index=24&feature=plcp Until i started video taping my hunts I never realized how far they can drop and they do on 95% of all bow shots.
I agree with the bending at the waist but would more likely go with the looking up in anticipation of the shot, before the shot,
Yes deer duck and yes bending at the waist is crucial but if your sighted in from an elecvated position you should have form issues accounted forin your sight in.That leads me to believe that you are anticipating the shot and punching the shot off .(buck fever) This can cause you to push the shot high. Couple that with a ducking deer( loud bow might be an issue) you miss high.Or you just aren't shooting the deer for the right yardage.
This is what I had happening but opposite. I would bring my pins up and trip the trigger. I'm a pretty avid bird hunter and it was like I was leading a bird coming straight towards me. I would trip the trigger and still be going up. I've learned to "float" the pin where I want it and all the high shots have ceased. It takes about 2 seconds longer but the feeling of recovering a deer instead of recovering a clean arrow is way better. Good Luck!
Thanks everybody for the good tips and advice i will be hitting the woods pretty hard tomorrow so i will let you know what happens, I believe its the bending at the waist thats making me miss high so hopefully i will have a good evening in the woods with some deer and be able to post a picture of my first arrowed deer!!! Thanks again for all your help!
